Williamsburg Bridge Railway terminal

Williamsburg Bridge Railway terminal

Touring:J M Z trains to Essex
St. Look into the space south of the station when no Brooklyn-bound
train is in the station.

construction and operation

The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge designed by Leffert
Lefferts Buck in 1897 for the New East River Bridge Commission, a body
jointly constituted by the City of New York and the City of Brooklyn.
It was the second East River bridge, after the New York and Brooklyn
Bridge, opened in 1883.

The bridge was to support six railway tracks. Down the center are two
elevated railroad tracks, still in use for the J M Z trains, that run
into an underground station in Manhattan, originally a terminal, under
the north side of the bridge plaza. Flanking them were a pair of
pedestrian walkways over two streetcar tracks each. The north pair of
tracks were used by Manhattan conduit cars running from street
railways to a terminal at the bridge plaza in Williamsburg. The south
pair carried Brooklyn trolley cars to an underground terminal in
Manhattan with eight loop tracks under the south side of the bridge
plaza. On the outer edges of the bridge were wagon lanes.

The underground trolley terminal is the abandoned station. The bridge
was opened on 13 December 1903, and bridge local streetcar service
began on 10 October 1904, followed on 3 November by through service
from Brooklyn trolley lines. The underground terminal was not finished
in 1904 and probably opened on 18 May 1908. The Brooklyn car lines and
their loop assignments of 1908 were:

The City contracted for use of the bridge railway to the Bridge
Operating Company, formed July 1904 and owned half and half by the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) and Metropolitan Street Railway systems.
Bridge Operating actually operated the bridge local cars, under a
statutory 3 cent fare, and also contracted out use of the tracks by
other streetcar companies for through service. In the case of the
underground terminal and the south side tracks, all the companies were
BRT divisions except the Coney Island and Brooklyn. By 1908, the BRT
was operating the local cars on behalf of Bridge Operating. Following
the financial collapse of the BRT in January 1919, later that year the
Brooklyn City Rail Road lines were placed under separate management.
The BRT system was reorganized in May 1923 as the Brooklyn-Manhattan
Transit system (BMT), still not including the Brooklyn City nor Coney
Island and Brooklyn lines.

The City acquired the Bridge Operating Company in 1920 and contracted
use of the tracks directly. All Brooklyn carlines were withdrawn in
December 1923. From that time till February 1931, only bridge locals
were operated on the south side tracks, by the City's Department of
Plant and Structures. After that date, through service was resumed
from some of the Brooklyn carlines, now united under the BMT system,
but this last for-profit operation lasted only nine years, till the
whole BMT system was acquired by the Board of Transportation in 1940.
BMT trolleys continued to run on the bridge until 1948, when the
streetcar track on the bridge and the underground terminal were
abandoned.

The underground terminal for the elevated railroad adjacent to the
trolley terminal opened on 16 September 1908. The station was rebuilt
for through service in 1911-1913 to the Centre St Subway extending to
Chambers St. The subway has four tracks while there was room at Essex
St station for only three tracks and two platforms. There is provision
for a fourth track to run through the trolley terminal area and join
the subway west of the trolley terminal, should a four track subway
station be wanted. For many years, the elevated train service was very
intensive and a fourth track at Essex St would have been useful to
handle the crowds, but at the same time the trolley service was also
well patronized, so no expansion was ever proposed.

The streetcar terminal originally had entrances in the bridge plaza at
street level. At about the time the Independent subway was opened in
January 1936, the street entrances were replaced by a new passageway
under track level.

After streetcar service ended in 1948, the former track area on the
bridge was rebuilt into auto lanes with a new ramp from street level
closing off the former downhill ramp to the trolley terminal. The
trolley terminal itself however was just left vacant, and only small
portions converted to storerooms. It is still there with the dust of
over fifty years almost smoothing over the tracks. Construction work
on the Centre St subway starting in 2001 may lead to changes.

Footnote: the Manhattan streetcar lanes on the north side of the
bridge were in use until 1932. The original services were to three
Metropolitan Street Railway routes (8 St Crosstown, 14 St Crosstown,
and 4 Ave to Grand Central) and one Dry Dock, East Broadway and
Battery Rail Road route (Grand St Crosstown). The Met system collapsed
in 1911, and its successor New York Railways operated one carline over
the bridge, the 7 Ave-Brooklyn route, until 1919. From that time
forward, only the Dry Dock operated on the north side tracks, with two
routes, the Grand St Crosstown and a diagonal route from Park Row via
the Bowery called Post Office. When the Dry Dock abandoned all service
in 1932, operation on the north side tracks ended.

diagram

The diagram shows the underground terminal south of the open Essex St
subway station. Two potential trackways, never opened, could run from
the west end of the trolley station into the subway line. East of the
trolley terminal, the trackway for two tracks comes out of the portal
and then disappears under a roadway for auto lanes from street level
onto the former trolley lanes of the bridge.

A diagram by Bruce Lane for a trip brochure of the New York Division,
Electric Railroaders' Association, 1983, shows the original 1908 track
plan of the two terminals. The subway station was rebuilt to three
tracks, but the trolley station remained the same. There was a stub
track past loop 1 that could hold two cars.

An undated photo shows the terminal in operation sometime before 1935.
The separate stairs to each loop are still in place. The entire space
is paved to rail level, simulating a street terminal. The trolley
wires are protected by wooden channels from any contact with the steel
structure.

Passengers are waiting at what appears to be the Loop 1 and therefore,
depending on the date, for a Nostrand Ave car or a bridge local. The
subway station is out of sight on the right.

A photo taken in 2001 by Mike Fagan shows one of the trolley loops
with the Essex St subway station the background. The trolley terminal
was being cleared by the contractor beginning work on the Centre St
subway line.

Photo copyright 2001 by Mike Fagan. Thanks to Kevin
Walsh.

A photo taken in 1919 shows the bridge approach in Delancey St. The
stone kiosks in the center of the photo go down to the underground
trolley terminal, while the larger one to the left goes to to the
subway station. In the foreground there are waiting areas for the
several Manhattan streetcar lines that terminated here without going
over the bridge. All this has since been cleared away to make more
room for auto traffic.

At the bridge entrance, a portico covered an opening on each side of a
center stone wall holding a large plaque. The opening on the left was
for Manhattan streetcars. A car has just come out and is turning into
Clinton St on its way to 59 St via 8 St and 7 Ave. The opening on the
right, located directly over the portal of the underground trolley
terminal, was the pedestrian entrance. Inside is a stairway up to the
deck level, leading to the two pedestrian walkways on the bridge that
are directly over the streetcar tracks. To the right of the portico is
the auto lane to Brooklyn. The other auto lane is somewhat obscured by
shadow to left of the portico, but an auto and a truck can be seen
waiting for the streetcar to clear the way.

Source unknown. From Edward B Watson, editor, New
York Then and Now, New York: Dover Publications, 1976.

The 1928 Red Book guide to Brooklyn listed only the bridge local
running over the bridge, and notes the 3 cent fare. Washington Plaza
is at the Brooklyn end of the bridge.

The Geographia Street Guide to Brooklyn of 1939 lists the last three
through carlines over the bridge.